Day 28- Lanne-SoubiranYesterday we wrote that “Pilgrims receive with Gratitude”. No I am far from considering I meet those requirements of being a pilgrim, not because I am cheating in any physical sense but because I have not achieved unconditional acceptance of what may be given to me along the Camino . There are many stages to get to where I wish to be as a pilgrim. The first one I think we met last year on the Camino Frances; namely learning how to let go of the things that were unimportant (eg snorers and crowded accommodation) and to develop a sense of trust in venturing out into the unknown. I suspect anyone who completes the Camino Frances and is smiling has mastered both.
This Camino with its much larger moments of solitude is trying to teach me something more and it’s to do with unconditional acceptance of what the Camino may throw up at us. Examples are plentiful, When and if we encounter the heavy rain forecast for tomorrow, how will it be accepted? Will I see it is as something good for the farmers with their parched fields; but as a problem and inconvenience to ourselves as pilgrims. I guess that would be the normal worldly view, but it’s not the state in which I wish to remain. I would like to have a broader perspective and to accept there is something to benefit me spiritually (by getting wet) even though at the time, I probably won’t recognize it. We generally have a list of things in life we want, but they don’t necessarily correlate with what we need. It sometimes takes years for us to accommodate this perception and appreciate when we are given what we need as opposed to what we desire. ANZAC DAY Provided the internet works tonight you will be reading this on ANZAC morning. If we were in Picardy and other parts of northern France you would be aware of the Australian presence in WW1 when services to commemorate Anzac Day are held. Down here in the midi-Pyrenees the Australian troops were not deployed in WW1, in fact there was no fighting down here although the loss of local young men was enormous. With all the troubled spots in our present world we are indeed in need of prayer and cool heads.
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